


Mind Games

by kelex



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 20:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1199136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and the TARDIS play a game with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind Games

Jack could see why the Doctor was thoroughly entranced by the TARDIS. She was beautiful inside and out, from the exterior inwards. But where she was most exquisite was inside his head. Yes, she translated for him, but in the quieter moments, she was never far from his mind.

Sometimes, she was an amorphous swirl of green-flecked gold that drifted along the trails and channels of Jack's thoughts. Other times, she was a fully-formed voice in his mind, discussions touching on every subject in the universe. 

And he was never closer to her than when they were alone. The Doctor spent plenty of time with Rose, almost jealously so, which gave Jack time alone with the TARDIS. They grew almost impossibly close, and Jack found himself stroking odd bits of the TARDIS when he passed by. Corners of the control console, levers and switches, blank walls and curved windows, the railing by the door. 

Then came the chance to get inside her. The extrapolator was nothing but an excuse to raise her panels and slide inside her. And she cooperated with Jack, allowing him access to anything he wanted. It was beautiful inside, tubes and gaskets and boards, all overlaid with the TARDIS' own gold-tinted consciousness. The union was absolute pleasure. 

But the separation was nothing but pain.

He knew he was going to die by Dalek laser; he braced for it, and in his last seconds of life, he clung to the TARDIS in his mind even as she howled her goodbyes. 

The rejection was worse. 

Life rushed back into him in a thundering gasp, heart almost thumping out of his chest. He could feel the TARDIS on the periphery of his awareness, but inside his mind, she was gone. More than that, she refused him. 

He tried to call out to her, to Rose, to the Doctor. But it was for nothing; the TARDIS was actually shutting him out and rejecting him. 

Jack watched his beloved TARDIS disappear with the Doctor and Rose inside, stranding him on the dead game station. But the emotional abandonment was twice as painful, and all he could do was stare at the empty bit of space where the TARDIS had dwelt.

It matched the void inside him.

Fin


End file.
